Another Close Big Ten Loss

#13 Oklahoma 87, #9 Purdue 82, OT
The Big Ten has had a tough week, with both of its top two teams going down in close contests. Blake Griffin actually had a disappointing game, finishing two points shy of a 20-20. That was a joke, of course, because Griffin looks to blow away Tim Duncan's record of five 20-20 games in a season by a kid from a BCS conference. This game was also a bit of a coming out party for the other Griffin, Taylor, who had 19 points and 8 rebounds in a team-high 43 minutes. As long as Blake is playing like this, Oklahoma is surely one of the fifteen best teams in the country, and they can compete with anybody. I've been hesitant to move up their seed because I didn't think that he could keep playing this well every night... but maybe he can. The longer he keeps up this run, the more impressed I get. For Purdue, they did play pretty here. Their biggest problem was foul trouble: They lost Robbie Hummel to five fouls late in the second half, and had four other players collect four fouls. A bright spot was the emergence of Nemanja Calasan, who has a pretty shot and also is a big guy to deal with in the paint. He scored 20 points here on 9-for-15 shooting, to go along with 8 rebounds. This game proved that Purdue is a good team, but that they still have improvements to make if they're going to win the Big Ten.

#24 Wake Forest 82, UTEP 79
A very nice job by a young Wake Forest team to pull out the tough win. Everybody (except UNC, apparently) has close games, and being able to squeak out a win when you're not at your best is a great sign. With a quiet game out of L.D. Williams, and not too much from Al-Farouq Amin, it was Jeff Teague who scored the key baskets at the end of the game to fight off a frantic UTEP second half rally. UTEP was, once again, the Stefon Jackson show. He scored 31 points (including 13 from the line) to go with 9 rebounds. But it wasn't enough to prevent UTEP's second very close loss. Still, even without a big win, they have looked very good so far, and seem on their way to being a real bubble team late in February and into March. Assuming they fall to Arizona State tomorrow, they can still salvage the out-of-conference slate if they can avoid any bad losses the rest of the way. They'll need somewhere close to 25 wins to earn at at-large bid, so they need to just start racking them up.

#10 Gonzaga 81, Maryland 59
We know that Gonzaga had an explosive offense, but it was actually their defense that was on display in this demolition of Maryland. They held Maryland to 37% shooting, including 1-for-13 from behind the arc. Gonzaga also dominated the boards with 41 rebounds to Maryland's 28. Gonzaga has a ton of hard opponents still to come in the out-of-conference, so we'll still get to learn more about them. But I don't think anybody has any doubts anymore that this is one of the best Gonzaga teams, if not the best Gonzaga team, we've ever seen. And what's scary is that I don't think Austin Daye has hit his ceiling yet. I still feel like he isn't where he could be at this point in his career, and I can't think of any player who hasn't eventually hit their potential under Mark Few. For Maryland, they obviously hoped to win this game, but they have to be happy with the way this tournament has gone so far. They get Georgetown tomorrow, and Michigan during the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but otherwise it's going to be mostly easy street for these guys before the ACC season starts. Maryland looks like a more than likely Tournament team at this point, but they still have a lot to prove before we can pencil them in.